nature...communing with it or something...

So we live in the middle of a lot of nature now. Trees surround our house, which is not new to me. I was fortunate enough to live in a part of the city that had kept a lot of its big, old trees. There are rolling hills all around us and a creek kind of wraps around the property where we live. This is all beautiful. I think I've seen this countryside at least some in every season and it is always beautiful. I think the last few weeks have been especially gorgeous. Everything is lush and green and the skies are often bright blue. It gets cool at night and in the morning, fog rolls up off the creek and into the valleys between the hills.

But, this isn't entirely new. I grew up going to our family farm out in the country that is a different kind of beautiful, but definately beautiful.

What makes this place especially amazing, though, are the animals and birds...and reptiles, too, I guess. It feels like I regularly have interactions with them...or can recognize the relationship we share by sharing this land.

There are deer here all the time. There's a herd of about nine or so that live right around our house. There are several babies with this crowd that are just now starting to lose their spots. There are several females and a couple of bucks...one of them has a lot of points on his horns (I don't know what the lingo is for that, though). Sometimes they come right up close to the house and we can watch them through the windows. Sometimes they watch us through the windows, too. If I move past the window too fast or if our dog, the Beast, watches them for too long, they'll freeze and stare back at us. They don't always spook and run away...sometimes they just watch us, seeming to be as entranced as we are. The deer are absolutely beautiful creatures. And, did you know they change color in the fall? Their winter coats are slightly darker and more greyish brown than the bright reddish brown of summer. Smart creating.

There are also foxes here, but I haven't seen them too much lately. There is fox hunting in this area, though, so I would lay low, too, if I were a fox. We also have a lot of ground hogs...which are much larger than you might expect...and are kind of mean...and can climb trees (which you might not expect, given the ground feature in their name)...and, when startled, make a noise like a wild turkey. Welcome to Things You Probably Didn't Know About Groundhogs 101.

I'm also much more aware of how all this nature is cyclical and connected than I am in the city. For example, it's full moon time. The last few nights have been clear and beautiful and the moon is bright enough to cast shadows...not to mention bright enough to see by.

And, all of creation gets excited by it! The Beast and our cat, the Mini-Beast, have both basically been Mr. Sleepless in the Full Moon and completely wired. The dog will whine in the middle of the night to go out (which he doesn't usually do) and then just want to wander around and play when we get outside. The deer have been wandering around all night, too. We can hear them walking in the woods behind our house much later than usual. The coyotes (which we hear, but never see) had a FIT last night...yipping and hollering at each other for twenty minutes straight.

The owls have also showed up...and been loud the last few nights. Maybe hunting is easier in the moonlight? Maybe it's mating season for owls? Who knows?!? But, the Beast woke us up the other night, wanting to go play in the moonlight or something, and I couldn't go back to sleep. Because of the owls. They hooted and whoooed for at least 45 minutes. There were two of them the whole time and at least three some of the time. I didn't know they were also keeping my husband awake until he said to the darkness, "Could they just get a room already?"

Nature is fun, young people.

And, as it turns out, pretty awe inspiring...when it's not keeping you awake.